Witness Post: Nightshades

Tomatoes, eggplant, peppers, and potatoes (as well as tobacco) all belong to the same botanical family, commonly known as nightshades. The Latin name for this family of plants is Solanaceae, because all of them produce an alkaloid compound called solanine.

Nightshades have a reputation as bad actors in a variety of chronic conditions, such as arthritis, fibromyalgia, and IBS. But what do we really know about how these foods affect our health? Most of the following information can be found on various websites on the world wide web. Many statements from Wikipedia are corroborated on more authoritative sites. See the following:

Meet the Nightshade (Solanaceae) Family:

At first glance, the nightshades may look like a random collection of foods that couldn’t possibly be related. However, every nightshade plant produces fruits that all sport that same adorable little green elfish hat. Of the foods above, only tomatoes, eggplants, goji berries and peppers are “fruits” (the potato is a tuber and tobacco is a leaf). The fruits of potato and tobacco plants wear the same telltale hat, but we don’t eat the fruits of those plants.

Nightshades of all types were considered inedible prior to the 1800’s, because some varieties, such as belladonna or “deadly nightshade” (atropa belladonna) were known to be so toxic. However, today most Americans eat “edible” nightshades every day in the form of French fries, mashed potatoes, salsa, spaghetti sauce, ketchup, and many other popular condiments and food dishes.

What are Glycoalkaloids?

Glycoalkaloids are natural pesticides produced by nightshade plants. [They are also present in small amounts in a few non-nightshades: cherries, apples, and sugar beets.] Glycoalkaloids are bitter compounds which are found throughout the plant, but especially in leaves, flowers, and unripe fruits. They defend the plants against bacteria, fungi, viruses, and insects. How do these chemicals kill pests?

Glycoalkaloids bind strongly to the cholesterol in the cell membranes of predators, disrupting the structure of their membranes, and causing their cells to leak or burst open upon contact—acting like invisible hand grenades.

Glycoalkaloids have another powerful trick up their sleeves—they also act as neurotoxins, by blocking the enzyme cholinesterase. This enzyme is responsible for breaking down acetylcholine, a vital neurotransmitter that carries signals between nerve cells and muscle cells. When the enzyme is blocked, acetylcholine can accumulate and electrically overstimulate the predator’s muscle cells. This can lead to paralysis, convulsions, respiratory arrest, and death. Military “nerve gases” work exactly the same way.

Ok, so glycoalkaloids are clearly nightmarish compounds for tiny creatures daring to storm the nightshade’s citadel, but how much do we know about their effects on human health?

Proposed Glycoalkaloid Health Benefits

Health benefits? From a pesticide? Hmmm…

Glycoalkaloids are structurally similar to glucocorticoids, such as our body’s stress hormone, cortisol. Cortisol has many roles in the body, one of which is to reduce inflammation. Therefore, perhaps it is not so surprising that glycoalkaloids have been shown to have anti-inflammatory properties in laboratory studies of animals.

It should also not be surprising that glycoalkaloids have been shown in laboratory studies to possess antibiotic and antiviral properties, since this is what nature designed them for.

In laboratory (in vitro) studies, glycoalkaloids can trigger cancer cells to self-destruct. This process is called “apoptosis.” Unfortunately, they can also cause healthy non-cancerous cells to do the same thing. Cancer studies in live animals and humans (in vivo) have not yet been conducted.

“…the undiﬀerentiating destruction of both cancer and noncancerous cell lines…leads to questions of therapeutic uses of glycoalkaloids due to safety considerations. However, it is diﬃcult to translate the results of an in vivo trial in vitro. Therefore, both animal and human experiments are essential to conﬁrm or disprove the in vivo data observed in these studies.” [Milner 2011].

The Other Edge of the Sword

Research has shown that glycoalkaloids can burst open the membranes of red blood cells and destroy mitochondria (our cells’ energy generators).

Some scientists have wondered whether glycoalkaloids could be one potential cause for “leaky gut” syndromes due to their ability to poke holes in cells:

“…glycoalkaloids, normally available while eating potatoes, embed themselves and disrupt epithelial barrier integrity in a dose-dependent fashion in both cell culture models and in sheets of mammalian intestine…animals with the genetic predisposition to develop IBD, demonstrated a greater degree of small intestinal epithelial barrier disruption and inflammation when their epithelium was exposed to the potato glycoalkaloids chaconine and solanine.”

Glycoalkaloids are also known to cause birth defects in laboratory animals.

Fruits vs Vegetables: Here We Go Again!

Those of you who are familiar with my philosophy about plant foods know that I believe vegetables are far less trustworthy when it comes to health effects than edible fruits, and nightshades make this point nicely. The only nightshade vegetable humans eat is the potato; the rest of the nightshades (other than tobacco, which is smoked, not eaten) are fruits, because they contain seeds—eggplant, tomatoes, goji and peppers. As you will see below, even though fruits contain glycoalkaloids, they are far less likely to harm us. [Watch Ancestral Health Symposium video about vegetables vs. fruits.]

Potato Glycoalkaloids

Nightshade potatoes include all potatoes except for sweet potatoes and yams.

Potatoes make two glycoalkaloids: alpha-chaconine and alpha-solanine. These are the most toxic glycoalkaloids found in the edible nightshade family. Alpha-chaconine is actually more potent than alpha-solanine, but solanine has been studied much more thoroughly, and is therefore more familiar.

Most of us do not associate potatoes with illness, probably because the amount of glycoalkaloid most of us eat every day is not very high. There are numerous cases of livestock deaths from eating raw potatoes, potato berries, and potato leaves, but people do not eat these things. However, there are well-documented reports of people getting glycoalkaloid poisoning from potatoes, typically from eating improperly stored, green, or sprouting potatoes. At low doses, humans can experience gastrointestinal symptoms, such as vomiting and diarrhea. At higher doses, much more serious symptoms can occur, including fever, low blood pressure, confusion, and other neurological problems. At very high doses, glycoalkaloids are fatal.

Another reason why many people may not be bothered by potatoes is that glycoalkaloids are very poorly absorbed by the gastrointestinal tract, so, if you have a healthy digestive tract, most of the glycoalkaloid won’t make it into your bloodstream. However, if you eat potatoes every day, levels can build up over time and accumulate in the body’s tissues and organs, because it takes many days for them to be cleared. Also, since glycoalkaloids have the ability to burst cells open, they can theoretically cause damage to the cells that line your digestive system as they are passing through (this has been proven in animal studies but there are no human studies, to my knowledge).

Due to known toxicity, the FDA limits the glycoalkaloid content in potatoes to a maximum of 200 mg/kg potatoes (91 mg per pound). Human studies show that doses as low as 1 mg glycoalkaloid per kg body weight can be toxic, and that doses as low as 3 mg/kg can be fatal. This means that, if you weigh 150 lbs, then doses as low as 68 mg could be toxic, and doses as low as 202 mg could be fatal.

Potato Processing 101

The vast majority of glycoalkaloid is in the potato skin, so peeling will remove virtually all of it. Glycoalkaloid levels can be dangerously high in unripe and sprouting potatoes; any greenish areas or “eyes” should be removed or avoided.

Glycoalkaloids survive most types of cooking and processing. In fact, deep frying will increase levels if the oil isn’t changed frequently, so fried products such as potato skins and french fries can contain relatively high amounts:

“Mechanical damage to potato tissue increases the concentration of glycoalkaloids available for consumption. In addition, frying potatoes at high temperatures does not inactivate but instead serves to preserve and concentrate glycoalkaloids within the potato, leaving them available for ingestion and delivery to the intestine…” [Patel 2002]

Tomato glycoalkaloids are about 20 times less toxic than potato glycoalkaloids. (Fruits: 2, Veggies: 0). There are no dosage studies of tomatine in humans, but studies in mice tell us that 500 mg tomatine per 1 kg body weight (or 227 mg per pound) is the median lethal dose (“LD50”). This doesn’t tell us how much it would take to kill a 150 lb person; all we know is that it would take 34 grams of tomatine to kill a 150 pound mouse. Since ripe tomatoes contain 5 mg/kg or 2.3 mg/lb of tomatine, it would take nearly 15,000 pounds of tomatoes to kill this Mighty Mouse (probably many fewer pounds if you were to simply hurl them in his general direction from across the room). Since green tomatoes contain 100 times more tomatine, it would only take 150 pounds of green tomatoes to kill the overgrown rodent. We do not understand the effect of low doses of tomatine on any type of animal, including humans, over time.

Eggplant

Centuries ago, the common eggplant was referred to as “mad apple” due to belief that eating it regularly would cause mental illness. Eggplants produce two glycoalkaloids: alpha-solamargine and alpha-solasonine. Solamargine is more potent than solasonine.

Whereas potato glycoalkaloids are located mainly in the skin, in eggplants, glycoalkaloids are found primarily within the seeds and flesh; the peel contains negligible amounts.

The median lethal dose (LD50) in rodents is 1.75 mg/kg. This means that it would take at least 13 pounds of eggplant to kill a 150 lb monster mouse. [Note to self—when facing a giant rodent in a dark alley, go for the eggplants, not the tomatoes].

What about Peppers and Goji Berries?

Your guess is as good as mine…I could not locate any scientific information about glycoalkaloids in these foods. Peppers, because they are fruits and because they are in a different subfamily than the rest of the nightshade foods, may contain much less glycoalkaloid? Or none at all? Peppers are famous for containing hot and spicy “capsaicinoids”, not glycoalkaloids (I’ll write about peppers and capsaicinoids in a future article).

Nightshades and Nicotine

Nightshade foods also contain small amounts of nicotine, especially when unripe. Nicotine is much higher in tobacco leaves, of course. Scientists think that nicotine is a natural plant pesticide, although it is unclear exactly how it works to protect plants from invaders. The amount of nicotine in ripe nightshade foods ranges from 2 to 7 micrograms per kg of food. Nicotine is heat-stable, therefore, it is found in prepared foods such as ketchup and French fries. The health effects of these small doses is not known, but some scientists wonder whether the nicotine content of these foods is why some people describe feeling addicted to them.